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From the ashes of the pricing thread, I decided to do a post about indie book costs. I’ve been planning to do this for a while, but kept putting it off. I’m going to address two different books: Fury and The Demons We See. Both have very different financials behind them, so I think they’ll give a good contrast and range of what goes on behind the scenes.

COVER

Let’s look at Fury. You can see in the Amazon link the other covers of the series (Blaze, Grief, Schemes, and Interlude) in the Also Bots.
The same person did all of the novel covers (I’ll get to Interlude in a moment). Skyla charged me $80CAD for Fury. It’s a little less because it’s a series and she’s done them all, repeat customer discount, and I didn’t need many edits and alterations. Originally, The Tranquility series didn’t sell very much early on, so I couldn’t afford to invest a lot of money into covers. Now, sure, the series sells well (at least 50% of my income), but I’d rather not change the style since they are working fine for me right now.

They are designed this way to very quickly announce their genre, subgenre, and important parts of the story. Medievalish sword and sorcery, female warrior lead. We’ve had the discussion there many times about how some folks refuse to buy books with covers like Fury’s because they look “cheap” or “I hate stock art” or “If you don’t love your book enough for original art, why should I?” However, there are plenty of people who don’t mind stock art images, who find these covers attention grabbing enough for impulse buying. So that’s a balance I have to consider. Which is what brings me to the next book.

You’ll notice that Interlude is different. I bought the premade from Goonwrite.com for $35USD, if I recall. It is a simpler cover because it’s meant for fans of the series. It’s not for newcomers. Also, short stories sell a lot less than novels, so I had a smaller profit margin to work with. Interlude sold 12% of Grief and Fury in 2015. Even though the reading order is technically Grief-Interlude-Fury. That’s just how short stories go.

Now, let’s look at The Demons We See.. This cover was done by Tommy Arnold. I specifically picked Tommy because of his cover for David Dalglish’s new series with Orbit. I’d seen the cover early on and immediately contacted Tommy and asked for pricing. I wanted original, exclusive art, and I wanted an artist who worked with trad publishers and who could do that high end worth of work. The art, full spread, and typography (someone different did that) cost $1320 USD.

That is a huge difference from Fury and it’s $80 CAD. However, this book series I want to appeal to a different group of readers. I want to suck in the trad readers who normally would never take a chance on an indie. By using an artsy, but clearly fantasy-theme cover, I am hoping to bring in a different group of impulse buyer. I’m also hoping that word-of-mouth combined with the cover will lead to more impulse sales.

And, frankly, I wanted a crazy pretty cover so that if there is ever “Best Hair on a Fantasy Cover” Hugo, this cover will win it.

EDITING

Fury cost me $600 CAD in copyediting and $125 CAD in proofreading.

The Demons We See cost me $500 USD for a consultant/beta reader so far. I still need to arrange everything else.

These are pretty fixed costs and don’t change much. I tend to be charged less these days than I was early on, but it’s not a huge discount. Time is time, in the end. There’s not much room to skimp.

LAYOUT

I generally do my own ebook formatting, but sometimes I’m in a hurry or stressed or sick of looking at the book. I pay someone to do it; $25 for about a half hour of work.

I don’t do my print book layout. I also rarely do a print book on release. I only do a print book after the book has paid for itself. Fury had paid for itself before release (it had about 400 preorders across all platforms at $4.99). However, I still waited until I was paid before I did the print books (2 months after release, as Amazon doesn’t change customers until the book is out).
Layout costs another $50 for the ebook cover to be turned into a wrap cover, and $50 for the book interior. Again, I usually get a discount because I’m a repeat customer. I use CreateSpace, who doesn’t charge for file uploading. However, I don’t get the same distribution as Ingram/Lightening Source. Even if I opt to go over to them, I still wouldn’t opt into returns and so I wouldn’t be “allowed” in bookstores as I wouldn’t discount the 55%+ that they want locally nor would I opt into returns, thereby paying $3 USD to have a returned book destroyed or $20USD to have the book physically mailed back to me.

Nope.

Print is probably 5% of my bottom line, and I’m probably being generous by including What Kings Ate and Hustlers, Harlots, and Heroes into that figure, which are with a small press. AND, even those books, I still sell far more in ebook than print.

LAUNCH PUSH

Fury was Book 3 in a series, so I don’t push it. So, it gets regular pricing out of the gate ($4.99) as a preorder. I don’t always do preorders for my books. This did because I was getting a lot of movement on Grief (Book 2) and I wanted a preorder link at the end of the book for the impulse buy.

The push, instead, was Book 1 in the series. Blaze is regular priced at $0.99. This is to bring folks into a new series without having to worry about losing a large amount of money. If they don’t like the book, they didn’t waste a lot of money. If they do like the book, they are usually quite happy to pay the $4.99 for the rest.
I purchase ads to promote the book. I sometimes apply for Bookbub, even though I’ve only ever accepted once and they are very expensive. For a 99 cent book, I’m looking at $520 USD for an ad with them.

I usually use smaller ads. They obviously have lower ROI rates, but sometimes I don’t mind losing a little money if it helps get more names on the mailing list and more reviews up on Amazon. I spent $130 USD on ads for Blaze when Fury came out.

Demons will be different. It is a new series. I want early adopters. I want people taking risks on it right out of the gate. I will be doing a preorder at $0.99 and Release Week pricing of $0.99. The price will be $5.99 after that. If I’m very lucky, I’ll be able to get some ads for Release Week. That means I’ll needs a number of reviewers lined up to be ready to post their reviews on Amazon on Day 1 release or I risk losing my ads. (This almost happened to me before…talk about stress!)

I am planning to get every single small and medium ad I can get my hands on, so I’ll be budgeting $250 USD. I will try for a Bookbub, I won’t get it, but I’ll try just in case. If I get it, I’ll just make my kids live off ramen for a month.

SALES & PRICING

I estimate how much I think a book will sell and base my overall spending on that. I’ve made some mistakes and miscalculations early on, but I’m getting better at figuring it out. Without new releases or any pushes, I sell about 500 books a month. So that gives me a decent reference point going forward to determine what will sell and by roughly how much. I know when I’ll break even on projects, and I know some will take longer than others.
I estimated I’d sell about five hundred copies of Fury in the first couple of months (I made it in the first month), so I knew I could put some money towards ads, etc.

Whereas, my Spirit Caller series was very expensive to produce because of poor early decisions and was a low seller for me for a long time. So I started to make decisions on how to wind it down, lower my costs as much as I could, maximize ways to earn money off the series (singles, Bundles Books 1-3, Bundles Books 4-6, Complete Set + short stories collection) and repurposing covers. So after making all of those decisions, worrying, fretting, and shrugging my shoulder that well, at least the series broke even, the series starting making me money. Because that’s always what happens. eye roll.

As for The Demons We See, well, I don’t know how it’s going to sell. My realistic projection is comparable to Fury’s sales, both in the short term and the long tail. At the same time, I hoping for a lot more early on, simply because of the prime pricing. So that’s why I’m going to gun it all and hope for crazy, out of this world sales. My realistic projection is probably what will happen, but I’m going to try for crazy this time around. I did that once before, and it was a blast. I’m due :)

I hope that gives you an idea of what I spend on producing a book. Feel free to ask questions in the comments. I’ll answer as best as I can, and others can pitch in with their experiences.

This is a great break down, Krista. I typically shell out between $2500 - $3500 per novel. The bulk of that goes to editing, with between $500 - $800 for the cover.

The more I write the cleaner my drafts come out, so I'll probably drop the writing coach soon. That will shave about a thousand dollars off production. Having her has been amazing, but I'm reaching the point where I feel like I'm outgrowing her.

Thankfully all of my books have earned back production costs, and the beauty of this whole ebook thing is that they continue to make money. I'm so grateful to live in a time where anyone can publish.

I think I'm at 15 books now. Or 18...I need to go count. I don't need to spend nearly as much as editing and "help" as I did early on. I still pay for it because I do need it; I don't have beta readers as a general rule, so I can't lean heavily on them.

But I still need to spend it, ya know? Like, early on I'd hire 2 different editors to go through my stuff. Now, I don't need to the same way. I usually know what's wrong with my book when I send it to the editor! "XYZ is just pissing me off, I do'nt know how to fix it, help."

I put out 3+ books a year. It's asking a lot of people to keep up with that tight schedule.

There's also the issue of audience and style. A lot of fantasy writers in critique groups saying things like (I'm exaggerating) "Describe this more" and "get rid of the feminist claptrap here" and "more worldbuilding here," which would be the antithesis of what my entire style is. I remember sending a short story to a critique group a couple years ago and they returned it with having removed my entire voice and style. Sure, it was more for a "market" now, but it didn't sound like I'd written it at all.

I do have a beta reader on board for The Demons We See, but I'm also paying them. So, they aren't really a beta reader in the real sense :) I needed someone who was genderqueer/nonbinary who was willing to critique and comment on my nonbinary character, and willing to subject themselves to what could be (not on purpose) ignorant questions on my part or characters doing offensive things, etc. It seems rather wrong to expect them to do that for free.

And it seems wrong for me to guilt or badger folks who I can't often get to their stuff. And I can't offer good advise because they're writing existential literary masterpieces and I'm frankly not smart enough to understand what the fuck is going on. I did early on, and I'll ask people to read a scene or two these days if I'm stuck.

As for bad experiences with beta groups? haha yes, I've had some bad ones. I've had some good ones, too.

The biggest issues with stock photos right now is the lack of clothed warrior women not licking their swords.

Chickie on my Tranquility series covers is on hundreds of covers because she the only one! Everyone uses her, no matter what.

And good luck ever finding a non-white person for a non-contemporary fantasy cover (contemporary is hard enough, but at least there are some companies dedicated to getting more POC into stock images for covers).

Spirits Rising came out in Jan 2012. It's a 23,000 word novella. This was before Select, Prime lending, and KU. There was no market for novellas in fantasy.

The series isn't a romance, so I didn't want to promote it as one. I have a distinct style for them, inspired by the Fever series cover (the old ones).

Spirits Rising didn't make back my money. I wrote Dark Whispers. It didn't make back my money. I was in the hole by a grand at that stage. If I had my time back, I would have gotten 1 cover, different colours, numbers and the titles on it, as opposed to individuals covers at $200 USD a pop. I love those covers, but...I love eating, too.

Kobo opened up to direct selfpublishing and I went with them, as opposed to using Smashwords. The series did significantly better on Kobo and the series finally broke even. I made Spirits Rising free, in hopes of bringing readers to the series. That failed on Amazon. Wow. Just...wow. It didn't fail on Kobo. I made enough money to pay for Knight Shift.

By this stage, I'm putting one out a year. I realized this was bad business for a novella serial, but it wasn't making any money. Grief started making me a bunch of money; I needed to finish Fury to capitalize on that! First Wrong Impressions was winding down at this stage, but it was still making me $100-200ish a month.

I wrote Mystery Night knowing it would take a year to break even. Then I put it aside, because I had to get everything else done.

I decided to wrap up the series at 6 books like I'd planned. I decided to combine what was going to be a surprise novella into Book 6, and move Book 6 into Book 5 (Dead Living). Dead Living is what I'm working on now.

I decided to repackage the entire series as paranormal romance because, and let's be super fucking open here, people weren't buying the series as urban fantasy. I had resisted the romance label for a long time because I was afraid it would end up labeling me or pigeon holing me, and reduce my readership potential further. But somewhere along the way, I just said fuck this fucking shit, I have a Jeep to pay for.

So the slow rebrand as HEA-ending, PNR reader safe began. I was asked to open the box set for Spells and Spirits, with Charles de Lint. Then Janny Wurts posted here for everyone to go read it. Then, de Lint reviewed the first 3 books in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine. Then all of a sudden, people were freaking picking up the series in all different ways possible.

And I'm so confused. I'd given up completely on the series. I was writing it for the love by the end, and as a "thanks" to the few readers the series had who were crazy loyal, even though I could only put one out a year (because they were such losses).

I open my sales report and I'm just staring at it. I can tell which readers came from the box set (because they pick up #3 in the series). But what about all of these Books 1-3 bundle sales? Where are they coming from? What about all of the Book 2 sales? (so clearly they are reading Book 1 for free). How did this happen?

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that I'd said good bye to this series ever earning me money. I'd made peace with it. I'd decided I was going to keep my promise to my readers and give me 6 books. And now...I got nothing.

Just to chime in on the editing section... It would cost a lot more to proofread a book that's about to be physically printed, because then you get beyond "catch the mistakes the copyeditor missed" and into "are the paragraphs too loose or too tight, are there widows or orphans, are the broken words broken in appropriate places, are there too many broken words, are there any word stacks, is everything formatted perfectly." It takes me about as long as copyediting, although I get paid slightly less per hour. I'm looking at a $500 check for my last proofreading job--and that's for round one; I will have to take another look to ensure the typesetter interpreted and implemented my changes correctly.

Granted, this was a shortish nonfiction book, so there was bibliography formatting to be done, which can be a huge time sink because usually it's added hastily--I assume by an intern or assistant--after the copyeditor has already signed off.

Non-fiction is an entirely different beast. My non-fiction had 3 of us proofread it and the blasted footnotes still didn't all work.

For print fiction books, I proof format all those myself, unless I'm busy, then I bribe someone else to do it. So that's basically doubling the cost all over again for proofing. Non-fiction is usually double to triple that, depending upon the footnotes, references, and if you're paying them to final check the dates/names/locations (which is more again).

This is a fantastically in depth look at the industry and pricing Krista, thanks so much for being so open and willing to share! As a consumer, I greatly appreciate knowing what goes into the things I consume (food, clothing, etc) and books are a mostly opaque industry. And I know so many of the aspiring authors in the sub will find this info useful as well!

Thanks Wish. A lot of authors don't like to talk financials publicly for fear of reprisals, mockery, and the like. At the same time, I do think it's important for midlist (if that's the right term) authors like myself who aren't hitting the bestsellers charts (I've only been a Top 100 of Kindle author once, and for just a few days).

But, I still make money. I don't have a "real" job anymore, and I don't see myself getting one - unless I can't handle being home alone all of the time. If I was single, I suspect I'd have gotten another part time job after I'd been laid off in May. Just to make sure I had a steady based income. Beyond that, tho, I'm okay.

There's so many of us like me, who no one knows who we are in the industry. We aren't talked about ever. We don't have popular blogs or twitter accounts. We aren't winning awards. But we're quietly making money, and selling books, and running a business. I think it's important to know that we exist, simply so that other authors know there is a massive middle ground here between the Hugh Howey's and the dude making $12 on Amazon a year. And, for all of these articles that talk about publishing, very few talk about us in the middle.

There's so many of us like me, who no one knows who we are in the industry. We aren't talked about ever. We don't have popular blogs or twitter accounts. We aren't winning awards. But we're quietly making money, and selling books, and running a business. I think it's important to know that we exist, simply so that other authors know there is a massive middle ground here between the Hugh Howey's and the dude making $12 on Amazon a year. And, for all of these articles that talk about publishing, very few talk about us in the middle.

This is SO true! I have a bunch of author friends who fall into this category. They aren't huge. They aren't famous. But they sell books consistently, write stuff their readers love, and make a good living. It's awesome.

Thanks for all this Krista, it's very interesting. I certainly know quite a few Indie authors making a reasonable income, and a lot of them seem to be doing better than mid/low-list trad authors I follow (most of whom still need second jobs). And after Kameron Hurley's latest blog, trad publishing is looking even less appealing...

I've got two questions:
1) How many of these "middle" indies are there, and are they all in the popular "many books in long series" model? Don't take this the wrong way, but sometimes it seems much more like a cottage industry than an artistic endeavour - write in a certain way about certain things so that it sells. This obviously works well for a lot of people, but the quite often the books I enjoy reading (and possibly writing) don't sell that well even through trad publishers. Is anyone making a living as an indie author writing standalones, short series or less "popular" books?

2) What do you do if you don't have the cash to invest? Not knowing if I'll make the money back, I can't afford $1000 on covers, editing, etc. On the other hand, I realise that if I don't spend enough to create a professional product, then it probably won't sell. How did people take the first step here?

Most of us are in the series model. It's hard to do it with standalones. It's not impossible, but it's harder. Short stories are difficult, even when doing collections. Those who are pulling in good money with novellas are doing so with serialized novellas; so, still a series and rapid release.

I write fairly niche stuff. The Newfoundland novella series is a good example. Even my epic/S&S is nicher than most. It's not really for epic fantasy fans. The books are almost all dialogue. Little description. Little detail. So the typical fantasy readership doesn't go for it. But others do, right?

The people who can follow trends and write to trend do very well. Many of them are well beyond mid-list. It's a huge skill set to be able to do that. I can't do it. I admire those who can, because they sure make a lot more than I do. But well beyond my abilities.

I think it's okay to admit when you write niche and go into it recognizing it will have lower sales. Try as I might, I always end up writing niche. So I make other decisions to help make a bit more money at it :) Like, writing a short series or whatever.

2.I don't think people should spend $1000 on their first books, unless they can afford it. Instead of paying editors, work with beta readers. Join groups like Critique Circle, an online community of writers, and build up a critique group that works for you. Eventually you can get a good group that can help you work out all of your issues and proofread for you with no cost but your time (by critiquing back their stuff).

They aren't free and they might not be perfect representations of your book, but they will attract ebook readers. You need covers that are clean, easy to read, readable fonts when cover is in thumbnail size (I find this is the biggest issue with indie books), and depicts the tone and subgenre.

Just because she's holding an apple in the book doesn't mean she needs to be holding an apple on the cover. What you think of as the most iconic scene in the book might be dull and boring on a cover. So let go of those things and just try to match something with your book for tone, style, subgenre instead.

Skip the print book entirely unless you are planning to do a lot of in person things, or if you already know you have a large print readership that requires your books to be in a bookstore.

If you really, really, really want print books because you won't feel like a real author without them, use CreateSpace and print 5. You can always order more later.

It takes a while to start to make sustained money and sales. I think keeping your costs low early on is good, though I still think you need a quality product to give to the world. It's a balancing act and it's tough.

I agree with Krista about not spending a grand on your first book but you can also consider Kickstarter. I successfully had my first book funded and I'm about to launch the campaign for my second. Indiegogo's flex fund campaigns are an option too.

I don't blog anymore. I used to blog 2x a week. I used to review books. I ran a short story contest or two (and paid people). I even wrote a quickie guide to help give people ideas for blogging; it's for writers, but I find a lot of non-writers use it.

But...then I just stopped. I lost all interest. It stopped being fun and began just more work. Now I blog 2-3 times a year max, and it's usually just book updates and the occasional recipe.

Well said. Hugh himself talks about this a lot: the real story isn't the outliers. It's all the full-time authors out there quietly going about their business. You can't count on the lightning strike, but the middle ground IS something you can plan and work toward.

As I get deeper into writing fiction (originally trained for journalism) the more I'm starting to think seriously about becoming an indie author. The stigma of self-publishing is dying - faster every day in the era of social media. Once authors understand how much they should invest and what they can expect in return, I think more and more will switch.

There's still a lot of stigma in some circles. I care a lot less these days than I did early in my career. I've rather embraced the shrug and "oh well" attitude.

This career isn't for everyone. I don't begrudge anyone's choices. I've gone out for lunch with people who want to self publish, talked about what it's like being an indie, and they've left going, "okay, so I'm getting an agent." That's totally fine. I honestly get it :)

I'm currently hooked up with a lovely indie press out of New York, although I'm Canadian too. Like most indie presses these days, my publisher needs and wants authors to do the heavy lifting on marketing. I don't regret signing with them and they've got a very active author network in their own ranks. But at the end of the day, I do start to think more about what it would be like to retain full control myself, particularly if I'm doing so much marketing. I know my current publisher won't be interested in the next series I'm cooking up. I'm not sure I'm ready to go full indie just yet, but I'm very open to the possibility. Rejections are a part of life for most writers, but for me, I'd like to get to a point in my career where I'm not trying to fit what this publisher or that is looking for and get on with the business of telling the stories I want to tell.

I'm not 100% self published. My two non-fiction books are with a Canadian small press. I'm in the process of developing a possible third book for them. I like that they look after it for me, especially with non-fiction there's so much extra that goes into it. They arrange the artists and layout, all stuff I wouldn't want to do.

They also do their own advertising, etc. For example, they were the ones who did the discount on one of the books and did the ad blitz that got me in the Top 100 Ebooks on Amazon. They arrange events and tables at cons I speak at. So they do things I just wouldn't have the energy to do. I like that.

It's such an annoying thing, too, because it seems impossible. How do you possibly make money when you keep spending money! I do think minimizing one's expenses early on is key to breaking even faster - allowing you to produce more. However, it is easier to to sell more because readers will pick up more of your stuff.

I did a podcast where I talked about the free and low cost things I've done to help bring in more sales, reviews, and mailing list names. You're welcome to check it out. I talk about how tough it was early on, too. Link

Thanks so much for this post. It's super interesting, and I'm especially grateful for the breakdown of covers - I'm always curious what kinds of costs the different kinds of covers incur (And seriously The Demons We See cover is ridiculously gorgeous).

I'm glad you wrote this, Krista. I've been curious as to the cost breakdown for other authors.

My breakdown is a lot different than yours, simply because I have a lot less money on hand than you do (I also have far less books out - 4, as of today - but that affects sales more than production costs). The most I've paid so far to produce a book was about $550 USD in total ($200 for the cover, $250 for editing and proofreading, a very rough estimate of $100 on proof copies because I kept making mistakes). That was Hidden in Sealskin, and I was lucky to find an amazing cover designer through another author.

I do all my own formatting, ebook and print. Me doing print formatting often involves me yelling at my computer at regular intervals, but I'm getting better at it.

Ads? Not a chance. Those I do not have the money for. Not yet.

Because funds are a limitation for me, I also make sure to use beta readers as much as possible for editing, and editing is the last thing I would opt not to pay for.

In terms of the least expensive book I produced, that's the one that came out just today. I did everything, even editing. Thankfully, I can art, so the cover came out rather nice, if I do say so myself.

Overall, my books have made back all the money I've spent on making them (if I've spent any), and the bulk of my money comes from paperback, thanks to conventions and me remembering to bring up my books in conversation with people who like to read. They haven't made back all the money I've spent on my business in general yet, but they're not far off, which was nice to find out when I made the spreadsheet.

And that's how it works for a self-publisher who makes do with what she has :)

I mentioned elsewhere in the comments the use of beta readers when you can't afford the upfront investment and ideas for cheaper covers, etc. I am coming into this as a full-time author and business. I totally get not everyone can afford what I'm done, especially with The Demons We See, but I think it's also good for people to see where I personally spend my money. If I was making $250k a year, I bet my spending would look very different all over again.

Ads are really good for series books to get some sell through (where you make your real money). Or, sometimes I've gotten ads knowing I'd not make back my ROI but I wanted more mailing list names and more reviews for the future. To me, that investment was still worth it.

However I do think ads need to be approached carefully. There's no point to do them if you don't have a mailing list. Or links to your other books in your ebooks, for example. It seems silly, but my sales and sign-ups always improve with those things added (and I'm behind in updating a few and they don't bring in the stuff like the others).

There are some super cheap ads, like in the $7 range. Sure, they don't offer huge read thru, but sometimes you just want to get some new eyes on your name. Also, getting 1 mailing list sign up and 1 new review, to me, is worth it.

But I also get that it's tough to come up with even that investment starting out. There's also some stuff that does better in ads than others, so that's tricky to do, too. Most ad places don't take short works, for example, or anthologies. They will reject you for your cover or lack of reviews. So it's sometimes difficult to get the things lined up to even get a review, and money is only one of those things.

Oops, missed those comments somehow. My bad! Looks like I also wasn't clear that this what I said wasn't as a challenge to what you did. My purpose was to show another cost breakdown when different factors are involved, nothing more. Sorry for not being more clear about that.

It's definitely good for people to see where you're spending money, and I found it interesting to read, for sure. :)

Good to know about ads. I know next to nothing about them or how they work, but I'm starting to consider how I'll do them in the future - based on what you're saying, holding off until I have 1-2 more books in my series sounds like it'll be a good idea. Or more connected books in general, if that happens first.

Well I'm slightly in a slightly different market - I'm a commercial photographer basically, although some of my personal work has appeal to book publishers apparently. And yes I charge a minimum 1000cad for a book cover and up depending on the run. I may make an exception for indi publishers but not to the tune of 80cad.

Please don't take it as a critique of anything you did though, it was certainly not meant as such, and I don't think you did anything wrong there.

No if you hire me to shoot specifically for you it's 2000 per day plus usage fee which runs up to about 6-10k depending on the complexity of the project, plus expenses, which so far ranged from 500 to 30k.

1000 if you want to use some of my already produced pictures as is, although that depends on the usage of course; 1000 is the book cover. Some of them cost few hundred dollars and few full days of work to produce each, so I'd rather not sell them at all than sell them for 50-80 cad :)

They are of course more exclusive than generic stock photo, and they aren't shot with the purpose of being offered as stock :)

Whereas indies book cover producers are using stock which is purposely shot to be stock :) Some of the individual stock houses are charging in the $500-1000 range because they are set up for studio work and it's all ready to go.

I think we're talking about two very different worlds of photography here :)

Oh absolutely, and as soon you said stock I understood it; initially I thought someone shot and designed the cover for 80 dollars, hence the question. I'm familiar with Istock and such, in fact some of my old stuff is still online with them bringing some pocket change now and then :)